House (Un)broken

1

Laura
Clouds formed overhead, much like the day I was born.
Or so I was told once, in the one letter I have from my birthparents.
I know almost nothing of my blood-relatives, or if they're even alive anymore. All I know is that I was born in Langbæk, Denmark, and have been in foster care for as long as I can remember.
I've only been here in the US since I was twelve or thirteen. I'm fifteen now, and today was the day I would finally move into my new foster home.
My last foster home was fine, I didn't see why I had to move to a new one. The couple had one daughter, and I was their only foster. Life was simple, but sweet. I had no idea what to expect of this one.
I stepped out of the office building, pulling my suitcase behind me. A car pulled up, and a tall, thin woman stepped out.
"Are you Laura?" She asked.
"That's me." I answered nervously.
"I'm Rebecca, and my husband Dave is in the car. We're going to be your new foster parents."
Rebecca seemed nice enough, hopefully Dave would be as well.
Of course I had plenty of questions, but I was way too shy to just start blurting them out.
Luckily, that's when Rebecca asked "Do you have any questions for us?"
"Um...yes." I stammered.
"Do you foster any other children?"
I secretly hoped they would say no.
"We do. We have 3 boys. They've known each other far since before we started fostering them. If we didn't know, we'd think they were brothers."
"And how old are they?" I asked.
"Elias and Dennis are 15, like you, I believe?"
"Correct."
"Christopher is 14, he'll be 15 in a few weeks."
"Are they nice?" I wondered out loud.
"They better be." Rebecca stated.
"You'll meet them in just a minute, here we are."
The car pulled up to a house with three boys sitting on the front porch, waving.
The man driving, who introduced himself as Dave, Rebecca's husband, opened the door and helped me get my suitcase onto the ground.
The three boys approached me and seemed to be examining me.
"What's your name?" Asked the tallest one, with braces that occasionally clicked as he talked.
"...Laura." I answered softly.
"Hey, back down Chris, you might be scaring her," playfully suggested one of the other boys. He stood a good four inches taller than me, at least. His hair wasn't exactly long, but nobody would ever call it 'short'. At the ends it was bleached, and his eyes were a pale blue that stood out far more than my own green eyes, a blue that I was slightly jealous of.
"Shut the hell up, Elias," said the boy whose name I still didn't know as he elbowed Elias.
By process of elimination, that made him Dennis.
I turned to Rebecca.
"Oh shit," she mumbled, looking at her watch.
"We have to go to work in less than an hour, but we'll show you to your room. I'm going to trust you three to show Laura around?"
"Sure." Elias shrugged.
"Thank you," Rebecca gratefully thanked him as she opened the front door.
She led me to a hallway with two staircases, one leading up and one leading down. Hanging on a hook on the wall was the biggest key ring I had ever seen, with dozens of keys in all shapes and sizes, some so cliché-looking I wondered if they even really opened anything.
Rebecca picked up the key ring and instead of going upstairs or downstairs, unlocked a room I had assumed was a closet or something. I followed, wondering just how many rooms this house had.
"It's been a while since anyone's been in this room," she recalled.
The room was surprisingly large, a light grey, with a small walk-in closet and four-post bed. I had no expectations, but this was definitely more than I thought I would have.
On the desk in the corner of the room was a computer that looked at least ten years old, maybe more. Hopefully it still worked.
"What do you think of it?" Rebecca asked.
"I really love it...wow," I stammered. And I meant it.
I turned around and gave Rebecca a hug.
She was taken by surprise at first, but then hugged me back.
"Oh, and you have your own bathroom, too," she added.
I could have started crying right then and there.
"I love it even more now," I gasped.
"I'm so sorry to leave so soon, but I have to go to work. Use this time to get settled and get to know your foster brothers, okay Laura?"
"Sure."
Almost on cue, the three of them entered as I heard the sounds of Rebecca's footsteps down the hall.
I stared blankly at them, not sure what they wanted.
Dennis finally broke the silence.
"We'll show you around the rest of the house," he said.
"Sure, thanks," I responded, trying to seem as relaxed as possible.
"That wasn't an offer, I'm telling you. Come on."
I left my suitcase in my room, bringing only my phone along with me.
"This is Dave and Rebecca's room," Chris told me, pointing to a master bedroom at the end of the hall.
"What are all these closed doors?" I asked.
"Storage rooms or closets," Elias answered, opening one of the rooms to reveal that it was full of boxes with various labels.
"Some are empty bedrooms, too," Dennis added.
"Where are your rooms?" I inquired, secretly hoping they would be close to mine, since I was nervous to sleep in a new house by myself.
"Ours are in the basement," Elias answered, gesturing downward with his hand.
My eyes floated from my feet to the ceiling, looking anywhere but at Elias, Dennis, and Chris.
"Come on." Dennis insisted, leading me downstairs.
The basement was just as upscale as the rest of the house.
The stairs descended into a room with a sofa and coffee table, several other rooms branching out from it.
"These are our rooms," Elias clarified again.
"I'm hungry." Chris complained, effectively changing the subject.
"Let's order a pizza, then," Elias suggested.
"Give me a minute, I got this," Dennis boasted, pulling out his phone.
In attempt to fill the silence, I asked "What do you guys do for fun around here?"
Maybe it was a stupid question. Summer had just started, after all.
"Just some stuff." Elias answered bluntly.
"Uhm...how long have you guys known each other? When did you start living here?"
I was grasping at straws.
"About two years now. We all got here on the same day." Chris said, then added "It's kinda nice to have someone new here."
I smiled at this.
Questions went back and forth for a few more minutes. I learned that Elias was in foster care because his teenage birth mom tried to flush him down the toilet, and they learned that all I knew about my family was in a letter, which they asked to read but failed to realize the letter was written in Danish.
Until I showed them, that is.
The questions continued until the doorbell rang, and Dennis went to answer it.
He came back halfway down the stairs, and yelled "Come upstairs, bitches!"
I laughed in response and followed Chris and Elias upstairs.
I sat at the end of the dining room table with a slice of pizza in one hand, and my phone in the other.
"Put your phone away, we're at the table," Dennis instructed. He exchanged glances with Chris and Elias as they held back laughter.
I put my phone face-down on the table.
"Better?"
"Much," Elias nodded.
"So...how often are Dave and Rebecca actually home?" I finally asked.
"Honestly? Not that much," Chris shrugged.
I became slightly uneasy at the idea of being in a home with three boys and no adults.
Silence filled the room. The tension was so thick it could be cut with a knife.
"...I think I'll go unpack." I finally spoke, rising to my feet and leaving the table.
"Laura." Dennis said, making me freeze in my tracks. I turned to face him.
"Do you know how to get to your bedroom from here?" He asked.
My eyes darted around the room, eventually landing back on him.
"Uh...actually, no," I admitted awkwardly.
"I got this," Chris volunteered.
He led me to my room.
As soon as I had my privacy, the first thing I did was take a shower.
As soon as I got out, cold air hit my skin. I shivered and reached for my bathrobe. I pulled it on and sighed in relief at the warmth.
I stepped back into my bedroom, and heard noises coming from across the hall.
Loud noises.
"What the hell is that?" I whispered under my breath.

Cutting off here, sorry. This was becoming way too long. Might continue? Comment?